The Drum Beat 404 - Communication and Change News and Issues
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This issue of The Drum Beat features a small selection of summary project experiences, evaluations, and impact data, and articles pointing to trends in the use of communication for development that are available on The Communication Initiative website.
If you would like your organisation's communication work or research and resource documents to be featured on The CI websites and in The Drum Beat newsletters, please contact Deborah Heimann [email protected]
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EXPERIENCES
1. Ancestors Never Die Radio Drama - Honduras
This is an entertainment-education (EE) radio drama designed to provide information to Garifuna youth (aged 15-24) about HIV/AIDS and to model preventative attitudes and behaviours through the lives of the characters. The drama, which was created through a participatory process, began airing on local radio stations situated close to Garifuna communities in the Departments of Atlantida, Cortes, and Colon in Honduras. In preparation for the taping of this drama, over 170 volunteers were trained in design and production of theatre pieces with HIV/AIDS prevention messages. In conjunction with this process, formative research was carried out in an effort to ensure that the drama would resonate with Garifuna communities' adolescents and young adults. What resulted was a 90-episode radio drama filled with dialogues in both Garifuna and Spanish language and culturally appropriate stories, traditional songs, and promotional spots centred around a fictional community. Two microprogrammes were produced promoting an associated letter-writing contest. Other tools used for drawing attention to the drama included: a promotional t-shirt, a colourful poster, a CD, a community map, street banners, and flyers detailing the broadcast schedule. In addition, a discussion guide was produced, and 16 health educators and members of local non-governmental organisations (NGOs) were trained in this strategy; organisers held meetings with school principals and teachers, delivering an information packet and offering training.
Contact Lucia Kramer [email protected] OR [email protected]
2. Nari Jibon Domestic Violence Programme - Bangladesh and United States
This initiative provides services and information to women on domestic violence programmes in both Bangladesh and the United States. Developed to create awareness and to foster the development of alternative skills for women in Bangladesh, it includes the development of publications, a website, and training for women. The Nari Jibon school provides classes that are open to women workers, students, housewives, and all those seeking new skills and alternative work. The school seeks to provide a bridge and links to work where women can use these skills in NGOs, offices, businesses, tailoring shops, and other settings. The Nari Jibon website provides information and links on domestic violence programmes and shelters in Bangladesh with links to programmes and shelters in both South Asia and the USA. A range of publications, including brochures and posters, have been developed to help raise awareness as well as to provide women with information about services and where to access assistance if they experience domestic violence.
Contact Kathryn B. Ward [email protected]
3. NO2ID Campaign - United Kingdom
This campaign opposes the United Kingdom government's identity (ID) card and the National Identity Register programme. The campaign seeks to mobilise public support and protest against the Identity Cards Act of 2006 and plans to develop a "huge database to keep tabs on everyone, a massive infrastructure to collect people's details, and a giant network of technology required to verify people against their cards and both of these against the database." The campaign involves organising a pledge to resist signing up for an ID card, as well as a petition and letter writing campaigns. To facilitate this process, materials are being developed to provide information and build skills, including a NO2ID Lobbying Guide, Campaigners' Handbook, and Guide to the Arguments. T-shirts have also been printed to help disseminate the message. The NO2ID Campaign website provides background information, resources, and updates about the campaign.
Contact [email protected]
4. International Campaign on Women Human Rights Defenders (ICWHRD) - Global
This is an international initiative for the recognition and protection of human rights defenders, particularly women, who are activists advocating for the realisation of human rights for all. Organised as a coalition of women's rights and human rights organisations, ICWHRD is primarily oriented around a series of activities each year - under the broad theme "Defending Women Defending Rights" - between November 25 (International Day for Elimination of Violence Against Women) and December 18 (International Day of Migrants) to symbolise both women's history of activism and resistance, as well as the involvement of women migrants' rights activists in this cross-sectoral initiative. A global mobilisation on WHRDs, the participatory campaign uses postcards, a website, and face-to-face consultations over a period of several months in an effort to bring international attention to the concerns of WHRDs and their need for protection. It depends on the activism and participation of women and human rights activists in different fields and sectors, grassroots groups, NGOs, social movements, and other members of the civil society.
Contact [email protected]
5. I, Too, Have a Voice - Hear My Voice - Turkey
Launched in December 2000, this 6-month campaign was designed to give young people in Turkey an opportunity to have their voices and opinions heard, and to convey these to the Turkish government and the public. The campaign encouraged children ages 6-11, and youth up to 18 years old, to write messages to the prime minister of Turkey and to tell him whatever they had on their minds. According to the organiser, approximately 3,000 messages were sent from young people around the country via the campaign website, email, fax, and post. A selection of the messages were published 4 years after the conclusion of the campaign in a book titled, "Hear My Voice." Using the messages, the book aims to express young people's unfiltered voices.
Contact Serdar M. Degirmencioglu [email protected]
6. Keewaytinook Internet High School (KiHS) - Canada
KiHS was established by Keewaytinook Okimakanak (KO), one of the 7 tribal councils in Nishnawbe Aski, in 1999 as a pilot project to determine whether the internet could be an effective tool to deliver education to remote and isolated First Nation schools in far northern communities in the province of Ontario, Canada. Designed to provide students in secondary school with the opportunity to receive a high quality secondary school education without having to leave their families and communities, KiHS combines the traditional face-to-face classroom setting with internet course delivery. Classrooms are arranged by the community; a trained local teacher/mentor is present in the classroom and if there are enough students there will also be a part-time Classroom Assistant (CA) who will help with using the computer and other technical equipment. Along with being a portal to the internet school, the KiHS website provides background information about how the school functions, course outlines, and procedures for applying. It also includes resources for teachers, multimedia presentations, and examples of students' work.
Contact Erin Litwin [email protected] OR [email protected]
7. Training the Media, Empowering Minorities - South Caucasus
This 36-month project aims to use media (both the news and entertainment media) to create deeper public understanding of ethnic and other minority groups and their human rights in the countries of the South Caucasus. By presenting ethnic and other minority groups, in fair, accurate, and balanced ways, the project aims to help develop media that will raise public consciousness of minority rights and help combat xenophobia, racism, ethnic discrimination, and intolerance. The 6 engagement strategies are: empowerment of ethnic minorities; awareness building and training of the mainstream media; diversity education; collaboration between minorities and the media; media monitoring; and network building. A series of methodologies are used, including: workshops, conferences, and community meetings of key media and minorities groups; distribution of kits containing communications material and diversity manuals (some in local languages); internships for ethnic minority journalists in the mainstream media; team reporting projects involving multi-ethnic teams of reporters jointly producing stories; placement of on-site consultants in the region for periods of 6 months; development of reference books, listservs, and a website; and production of television and radio talk shows and documentaries on minority issues.
Contact Lydia El-Khouri [email protected] OR [email protected]
8. Mass Media Support to Agricultural Extension - India
This is a multi-component programme in both "narrowcast" and broadcast modes that features a live, interactive, televised problem-solving crop seminar and various in-person and telephone agricultural information initiatives. The project seeks to educate the nation at large about the field of agriculture and related areas like rural development, animal husbandry, community welfare, environment, energy conservation, and natural resource conservation and management; specific groups being addressed include farmers, extension workers, and field-level functionaries, as well as agricultural scientists, researchers, and policy makers. The goal is to help meet these groups' information and technology needs - toward environmental well-being, food security, and economic growth. Television is being used to provide various daily bulletins, such as a daily bulletin on differential market rates of agricultural commodities (telecast on the national channel and on several regional channels). With a view to addressing area-specific information needs of farmers, this project is utilising "narrowcasting"; TV programmes are produced to reach farmers within a small geographical region. Short films made to raise farmers' awareness of different interventions and initiatives on agriculture, technological priorities, and related issues are regularly telecast on the national channel, as well as in narrowcast mode. There is also an interactive weekly live phone-in programme whose purpose is to provide an "instant solution" to farmers' field problems every week on a fixed day and time.
Contact Dr. Tapan Kumar Das [email protected]
9. Women Talk Peace - Asia and the Pacific and Africa
This is a series of radio productions that aim to raise awareness about the varied aspects of the United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1325, which addresses the impact of war on women, and women's contributions to conflict resolution and sustainable peace. The series is part of the International Women's Tribune Centre (IWTC)'s efforts to develop a core group of broadcasters, print journalists, and other media practitioners who are informed about UNSCR 1325, in order to ensure a sustained flow of information about the resolution and other legal mechanisms, as well as how they can be used to protect and promote women's rights. The radio productions use varied formats including features, dramas, and short plugs. The first radio productions focus on women, peace, and security issues in Africa and Asia and the Pacific region and specific issues in certain countries in those regions. For example, the productions in Africa address issues of reconstruction in Liberia as well as the complexities of the armed conflict in Northern Uganda. The productions in Asia and the Pacific speak to the armed conflict in Southern Philippines but also reflect the nature and extent of conflict in Aceh, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Papua New Guinea. In 2007, IWTC plans to produce new local language radio programmes in Burundi, Sierra Leone, and Timor Leste.
Contact Mavic Cabrera Balleza [email protected]
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NEW
FINAL REPORT
Survey on the World Congress on Communication for Development (WCCD)
Final Report
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EVALUATIONS
10. Impact Data - Community Education Interventions in Sexual and Reproductive Health Services - La Paz, Bolivia
The purpose of this research was to evaluate the impact of a community intervention on utilisation of and community satisfaction with sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services. Four health centres participated in this research project, which addressed adult and adolescent men and women. The number of women client visits to the health centres in Chamoco Chico and La Portada increased dramatically, while there were no significant changes in the number of visits to the 2 control clinics. Evaluators claim that there was an important change in women's perceptions and use of contraception. Before the educational interventions, few women reported using a contraceptive, and others did not know about or had not even heard about particular methods. Due to experiences recounted by friends and relatives, many participants thought that contraceptives caused health problems. The educational sessions were shown to increase women's knowledge about contraceptive methods, with health facility data showing changed use patterns.
11. ECDPM External Evaluation 2001-2005: Final Report
by Konrad Matter, Raphael E. Mwai, Edward Sefuke, and Andrew Sherriff
This report shares the results of an evaluation of the European Centre for Development Policy Management (ECDPM), an independent foundation legally constituted in the Netherlands that has been working since 1986 to foster development cooperation between the North and South. Specifically, ECDPM facilitates policy dialogue, creates understanding of processes and institutions, and builds capacity to help foster an effective relationship between the European Union and Africa, the Caribbean, and the Pacific, particularly related to development cooperation. ECDPM asked an international team of independent consultants to assess its performance of the last 5 years in view of the upcoming cycle (2006-2010).
12. Assessing Effects of a Media Campaign on HIV/AIDS Awareness and Prevention in Nigeria
by Joseph Keating, Dominique Meekers and Alfred Adewuyi The purpose of this paper is to identify determinants of family planning and reproductive health (FP/RH) programme exposure and to assess the effect of a FP/RH mass media campaign on HIV/AIDS awareness and condom use. Specifically, it examines the 3-year VISION Project, which was launched in an effort to improve access to, and awareness of, FP/RH services, HIV/AIDS services, and child survival services in Nigeria. This paper assesses to what extent exposure to this programme, which drew on behaviour change communication and community mobilisation as core strategies, translates into increased awareness and prevention of HIV/AIDS.
13. Enhancing Learning in the M&E Process: Outcome Mapping in Ecuador
by Kaia Ambrose
This article describes and assesses outcome mapping (OM), a methodology for planning, monitoring, and evaluating development initiatives. It emerged from the Ceja Andina initiative, which is working to ensure the sustainability of agriculture and forest biodiversity in the Andes of northern Ecuador. This project engages a diverse range of stakeholders, from farmer research groups to local municipalities, in efforts to develop knowledge, capacities, and social learning to support community-based natural resource management. OM was developed as part of a participatory process on the part of Ceja Andina project team members and stakeholders, who - from the very beginning of the project - sought to meet monitoring and evaluation (M&E) objectives (e.g., accountability) while at the same time placing a high priority on collective and individual learning.
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PULSE POLL
It's time we stopped dividing the world into North and South.
Do you agree or disagree?
[For context, see The Drum Beat #401.]
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TRENDS
14. Social Impact and Diffusion of Telecenter Use: A Study from the Sustainable Access in Rural India Project
by Rajendra Kumar and Michael L. Best
This paper shares trends and strategies related to the social impacts of telecentre use in rural south India. As detailed here, the authors carried out a study of the Sustainable Access in Rural India (SARI) project, which was launched in November 2001 in an effort to foster rural social, economic, and political development by providing comprehensive information and communication services through computer and internet kiosks. The kiosks offer services including basic computer education, email, web browsing, e-government, health, and agricultural and veterinary applications on a fee-for-service basis. A majority of the kiosks are locally owned and operated by self-employed entrepreneurs, while some are operated by self-help groups from a local NGO. The authors contend that "[t]his case is of particular interest in that it is one of the first projects in India that aimed at establishing commercially sustainable telecenters in rural communities."
15. On New Media and Journalism: How the Coming Newspaper Industry Collapse Will Reinvigorate Journalism
by Paul Gillin
This essay outlines the "near-total collapse of the American newspaper industry as we know it", which author Paul Gillin claims is an inevitable yet exciting part of the industry's process of reinventing itself. He here traces various trends in the printed medium of sharing news and information, contending that the business model of metropolitan daily newspapers is "poised for a collapse that will be stunning in its speed and scope. The cause is Web 2.0 and the vastly superior economics of that emerging business." Namely, Gillin suggests that "the emerging economics of blogosphere" is a medium far more cost-efficient than what it will replace.
16. Media Exploits Internet 'Social Networking'
by Dinesh C. Sharma
This article explores the global phenomenon of "social networking", which - according to author Dinesh C. Sharma - is "spreading like wildfire on the internet." Sharma details the history of this communication trend, explaining that, from the time of the internet's "birth", the concept of social networking has been central. In short, people have been sharing opinions, information, photographs, and (more recently) video clips, with their families, friends, and people at large. Recognising the "vast number of communities [that] developed on the internet", and realising that "some of these online communities started growing and their websites began attracting millions of hits, the biggies in the new media business woke up to the business potential of 'social networking".
17. Parents Are More Worried About Kids Minds Than Bodies: TV and Internet Bigger Concerns Than Sex and Drugs?
by Pam Gaulin
This news piece gleans data from a study conducted by the Insight Research Group that explored American parents' attitudes about their children's media consumption behaviours. Commissioned by the United-States-based Common Sense Media, the study found that parents seem to be more concerned about their children's "overuse" of media - including using the internet for social networking, downloading music, playing video games, and watching television - than they are about their kids' involvement with sex or drugs. The study found that parents worried more about their children's use of television, the internet, and video games than they were about them smoking, drinking, engaging in sexual activity, being overweight, or developing eating disorders.
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